So my first experience with Pokemon was way back with Pokemon Red, I picked up the game, dusted off my huge brick of a Gameboy and began the trainers journey. I played the game religiously, I captured Pokemon I found cool and leveled them, my favorite was Dratini who eventually became a mighty Dragonite. I eventually beat the Final Four, captured all of the Legendary Birds and got my Mewtwo, after that I did a new game and started over again to repeat the process. I haven’t really played much Pokemon since then, some Platinum and Black & White, along with the card game casually but generally wasn’t super invested in it.

Until now…

So I took the plunge and installed Pokemon Go after seeing so many of my friends and coworkers start it up, i’m a little late to the party and I’ve just reached level 8, and sadly most of the Gyms in my area aren’t my team’s, I picked Team Valor as fire has no master, so it’s a lot of adventuring and capturing wild Pokemon and hitting as many Pokestops as I can on a daily basis. There are three Pokestops right next to each other a few miles down the road from me, along with another Pokestop and Gym up on a hill where a playground and church are located. The centralized area with the Pokestops is pretty good hunting, most hours of the day a lure is active, and some rare Pokemon appear there next to the McDonald’s parking lot. The selection and power level of my Pokemon is slowly growing, let’s take a look at them!

The newest member of the team, from the dark depths of the ocean and mankind’s oldest fears rises Dagon, he is currently the most powerful Pokemon I’ve got, and I plan to capture many wild Eevee and sacrifice them to increase his power to challenge the local Team Instinct Gym. Not sure if the Eevee I caught off Innsmouth had a direct impact on him evolving into a Vaporeon or not, but I believe it may have.

So whose up next?! Why only the fierce and mighty…

Man this thing, well he’s not too bad I guess, granted I did catch him near the dumpsters at the McDonald’s. I suppose it could be worse…

Well yes, yes it could be. This guy I caught in the same area as my Oddish. I honestly never liked this Pokemon outside of the original Pokemon episode where he was the centralized Pokemon. But hey, I’m just starting out so gotta use what I can to survive on these mean streets. Couldn’t be worse right?

Another nightmarish beast from the sea, or well toilet as I caught it at a gas station. It’s powerful to start at least, and sadly I wasn’t able to capture a Poliwrath I found earlier in the day even after hitting it with 15 Pokeballs, stupid red ring of death. But I guess I’ll keep this guy around for now.

So this weekend I plan to hit some more Pokestops, and there is a local Pokemon Go Meetup at the county library so I may head there for that as well. Overall I really like this game, and think it’s absolutely the type of game needed in this day and age, it gets people out and interacting, and keeps them on their feet. Not everyone is into sports and other activities in public, and as an Introvert myself, it’s often hard to go out in public and socialize with groups of people, and this game definitely helps bridge that gap through mutual interest and the adventurer’s call of finding new places and Pokemon.